Boxee Box gets Intel CE4100 as Tegra 2 dumped; $199 preorders today

Bad news for NVIDIA, whose Tegra 2 chipset has been dropped by D-Link and Boxee for the upcoming Boxee Box by D-Link. According to Boxee’s Avner Ronen, despite NVIDIA’s hype the Tegra 2 chipset couldn’t cope with H.264 HD video as it was able to with high-profile VC-1, and as such they replaced it with Intel’s Atom CE4100. Boxee has partnered with Amazon and Best Buy to kick off preorders of the now $229 Boxee Box later on today.

Update: Boxee has been in touch to let us know that, while the MRSP of the Boxee Box will be $229, it’ll be up for preorder – and have a street price – of $199.

If the Intel CE4100 sounds familiar, that’s because it’s at the heart of the Google TV box that Logitech will be bringing to market as the Logitech Revue. It’s able to churn out 60fps 1080p H.264 video, while the rest of the Boxee Box specs remain the same: Flash 10.1 with GPU acceleration, HDMI and digital optical outputs, various USB 2.0 and analog audio ports, and a memory card slot.

Boxee says it’s still working with NVIDIA and might consider the Tegra 3 whenever that hits production lines, but right now Intel are the ones scampering to the bank. If you want a Boxee Box of your own, check out Amazon and Best Buy later on today.